Although the aesthetics of the shattered screen look are starting to grow on me, I do prefer the functionality of smartphones whose parts are intact. And the very nature of touchscreens--that to work as intended they must be exposed to adverse conditions, such as free falls, spilled drinks, and the occasional canine or baby incisor--makes protecting them a lot more difficult than those of us living in a world of Hovercraft and bite-sized PCs might think. Now though, laughing in the face of difficulty, we have the dream team of Evolutive Labs, custom formulated polymers, and the Rhino Shield.

At only 0.029 cm thick and cut to adhere to almost any smartphone or tablet screen, the Rhino Shield polymer safeguards the most precious devices we own from an impressive range of impact types and severities. Check out the video to see it walk away unscathed from poundings, scratchings, drops, and the touch of Ke$ha. Rhino Shields are smooth and transparent, and can be used either solo or in conjunction with a case. They even resist fingerprint smudges, which is welcome news to someone like me who tends to text & Taco Bell a little too often.

My one contention: Evolutive Labs also states that Rhino Shields are easy to apply, with supposed proof shown in the supplementary video above. Uh, does that look easy to you? To me it looks like it would require the fine motor skills of a surgeon. Like I might drive my fist into my screen in frustration during the process. At which point I would hope I had gotten the Rhino Shield applied at least to the fist reception part of the screen.

Rhino Shield runs as a Kickstarter project through March 13, 2013. Pledges are available for a range of smartphones, including Galaxy, iPhone, and Samsung models, as well as tablets such as Kindle and Google NEXUS. Backers can purchase covers for either their screen only, or both the screen and the back of the device. Anticipated delivery date is April 2013.

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